Othilie spends her vacations with her uncle Antoine, an old lonesome bear. In charge of a regional park, Antoine lives a long way from Paris, in company of the shepherd Tambourin, whose frightening face hides the innocence of a new-born child. Since the arrival of Othilie, odd things happen. A slaughtered sheep is found and weird howls are sounding through the night. The wolves are not far away.

Composed entirely of literary quotations from many different sources and from several historical periods, the loose narrative concerns a drifter found by a rich woman who soon falls in love with him. A drowning accident takes place and the drifter dies, but some time later he reappears in the woman’s life looking for a job. Or could it be the man’s twin brother?